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Did you know that CITEC can temporarily fill positions in quality, engineering, and operations? Or that we can manage a short- or medium-term project that you might not have the on-site expertise for?

NYS is focused on strengthening manufacturing with a variety of programs through 2024 and 2025. The Supply Chain Initiatives programs offer a no-cost assessment with supply chain experts as well as the potential for funding to mitigate gaps or risks.

Technology, like rust, never sleeps. As improvements and complications multiply, manufacturers are constantly weighing whether or not a new advancement is right for their business.

Professional development may mean many different things, but the basic truth is that continuous training and development, at every employee level, is a key component to building and maintaining the workforce your business needs to succeed.

Serving as CITEC's Board President has been a relatively easy way to make a difference in the North Country region.

It has been true for a long time, and it is one fact that is not going away; one of the main reasons people leave their job is a poor working relationship with their boss.

Several years ago our clients started telling us stories that seemed shocking at the time. Stories about people wearing cutoff shorts, or vaping, or texting during job interviews; showing up late on their first days of work, or leaving after the first lunch break.

We all read a lot of articles about leadership development and the various methods of reaching today's workforce to build tomorrow's leaders. The processes of coaching and mentoring that "kids today" require can seem time-consuming and even overindulgent.

On Thursday, October 19, high school students in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence Counties participated in the 11th Annual Manufacturing Day touring manufacturing facilities across the region. They learned about the variety of products made right here in the North Country, and discovered the array of career possibilities available in industry.

You are not alone in not having a viable succession plan. Big corporations also struggle with this, and as NPR reported in September, there is a phenomenon of boomerang CEOs.

One of the reasons everyone is having a hard time finding workers is simply because there are a lot fewer workers than there used to be. It’s not because no one wants to work, or even that there are no good child care options. It’s simple math.

A continuous improvement manager who is always working on process improvement is an important part of many manufacturing teams. When there is someone on staff whose job it is to define trouble-spots, find waste, track data, develop and implement improvements, and monitor for consistency, your Lean culture continues to build on itself. For a lot of businesses, this is the perfect approach to ongoing optimization. There can be drawbacks to that approach as well, however.

CITEC's 15th Annual Safety Day was held on May 24th with about 80 people in attendance. It was certainly one of our best attended events since before COVID, reflecting that it is time, once again, to focus on every-day safety matters.

Workforce gaps are intense for every kind of position in a company, and CITEC works to address those gaps from entry-level production hires through senior leadership. One area that can be particularly difficult is finding skilled experts to fill permanent positions or to manage specific projects. 

Sometimes we forget that the workforce shortages began long before the pandemic did, but it is a positive development that they are finally getting the multi-faceted attention they deserve.

You know your company needs help with its growth strategy, but it is hard to know the best ways to invest your limited resources. 

CITEC develops programs based on the needs of our clients. And as everyone knows, some of the biggest challenges for businesses today revolve around all levels of workforce. For several years, even before the pandemic, our clients noticed a lack of workforce readiness in entry level employees

Many manufacturers are working with a LOT of new employees on the line right now. While it's great to have new blood, new ideas, new energy, the basic truth is, you still have to produce your products safely and on time.  TWI Job Instruction is the tried and true method for quickly training your new employees on production tasks.

Lean 101 is a half-day basic Lean introduction that gets your team speaking the same language and working toward the same goals. With a new year, new teams, new goals and new projects, this kind of training gets everyone involved in pursuing production excellence.

With the imperative to keep good employees in the ranks, employers are better understanding that investing in their best workers to become their best leaders is a win-win.

CITEC has had remarkably few staff changes over its 30 year history. This has always been a great company to work for, and the work itself is rewarding, so it is with a bit of wistfulness that we say “goodbye” to two longtime co-workers, George Mauch and Ellie Newvine.

Respect for the people. It’s the number one tenet of a Lean culture. The people who are doing the work actually know the best ways to do the work.

CITEC was thrilled to present Marijean Remington, CEO of Atlantic Testing Laboratories in Canton,  with the Tom Plastino Distinguished Service Award at our annual banquet on November 3 in Saranac Lake. 

On Friday, October 14, high school students in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence Counties participated in the 10th Annual Manufacturing Day by touring manufacturing facilities across the region, learning about the array of products that are made right here in the North Country, and discovering the variety of career possibilities available in industry. 

As a historical reference, it's an interesting notion, but in practice, "Industry 4.0" is a ridiculous name for the idea of using currently available technology to solve challenges at your facility. 

Every single manufacturer we talk to tells us about new employees who start at 7am and are gone before lunch. Workforce is the number one challenge facing almost every business in the country right now. There are very few quick-fix solutions to this shortage, but the MEP just published a white paper with a range of approaches that may offer some relief to your organization. 

Payroll is your biggest expense, and your employees are also your biggest asset. Even small investments in staff development go a long way for your company, and a robust professional development plan pays off in countless ways. 

Your business is chugging along; you make sales, you make product, you make payroll. But maybe you're not quite making your goals.

Employers across the North Country, and indeed across the whole U.S., are reporting difficulty finding entry-level employees with adequate workforce readiness. A basic understanding of general workplace expectations is missing

Long before the pandemic, manufacturing faced a shortage of skilled workers. During the pandemic, men and women both lost employment, but women have been disproportionately affected, dropping out of the workforce at a rate 20 percent higher than men.

In an effort to increase vaccination rates in every community and hasten economic recovery, the federal government is offering a tax credit for small and medium-sized businesses to fully offset the cost of paid leave for employees to get vaccinated and recover from any after-effects of vaccination. 

Ransomeware against manufacturers is a growing problem.

2020 has been a year like no other, without a doubt. The election, the pandemic, and everything else has thrown manufacturers a lot of curveballs; supply chain disruption, workforce issues, tariffs, new rules and regulations, safety concerns, the list goes on and on. It also seems like with every new problem there is a series of new solutions, new technologies, new products, new software, that are supposed to offer the answer to our most difficult challenges. 

We know that you have already participated in dozens of surveys and assessments, but as NYS continues to collect data, we need every manufacturer to continue to set aside a few minutes here and there to add their input. 

Cyber security industry standards and requirements don't seem that important—until they are. Even if your industry does not (yet) have requirements, it is vital that you keep your systems running and your data safe. 

New York State is working to make sure there is PPE for everyone and that no one is competing for PPE with the Healthcare sector. There are a few initiatives underway.

Manufacturing leaders are invited to tune in for a virtual local business networking event. A panel of St. Lawrence County manufacturing business leaders will present new products, tools and techniques that they have undertaken to pivot during the pandemic to maintain business and plan for the future. Examples of marketing, capital investment, staffing and customer culture will be addressed in their real life examples.

Last year SHRM reported that 1 in 4 Americans dread going to work, and in a new SHRM survey 84 percent of employees say that poorly trained managers are creating extra stress and unnecessary problems. Managing people, communicating appropriately, mentoring and coaching effectively, building cooperative culture -- these are all things that workers cite as deficiencies in their managers. 

The systematic application of Lean or Continuous Improvement principles is a proven technique to strengthen businesses. Unfortunately, it's not a simple plug-and-play model. It requires a mindset that may include a cultural shift for your business. 

We are in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It's an exciting development -- a transformation unlike any that has come before. "Industry 4.0" is the name that some organizations use to refer to the adoption of technology related to this Fourth Industrial Revolution, but does that name help companies understand the role that these technologies can play in their systems?

Everyone is having a hard time finding the skilled labor they need. One solution is to build that skilled labor from within your company.  Apprenticeship programs are an investment in your employees, your community, and your future.

The word “agility” is most often associated with movement, such as in sport or dance, referring to moving quickly and easily.  A  second definition relates to the ability to think and draw conclusions quickly. Both definitions come together in business when complex systems and the dynamics of real-time interactions play out.

A process is defined as a series of actions or steps to achieve a desired outcome.  Any business or organization relies on many  processes to produce their products or services.  Manufacturing, in particular, has been honing these sets and subsets of instructions to produce the highest quality products in the most efficient manner at the lowest cost for decades.  The  COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent disruption to most of the norms that manufacturers have relied on to achieve economic growth and financial gains, has been enormous and painful.

As manufacturing consultants, we hear a lot about Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), digitization, the "factory of the future." Internet-enabled technology is being harnessed throughout manufacturing to increase productivity through a variety of mechanisms including data analysis, and interlinking systems. But are small manufacturers being left out?

Businesses and employees are facing an unprecedented time of uncertainty, instability, and stress. Business leaders have a lot to think about and plan for, in addition to possibly having to shift gears completely to stay afloat. And there isn’t the luxury of time for reviewing data or strategic planning; leaders must be decisive in the moment about all aspects of their business.